


Reverse Strip

by x119



Series: Stitching & Strategy [2]
Category: Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)
Genre: Fluff, Humor, I played poker a lot when I wrote this, M/M, and I had all my clothes on thanks, but like, please bring to mind the mental image of a guy wearing like 100 shirts bc that's how I felt, with skittles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-05-02 06:57:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19193989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/x119/pseuds/x119
Summary: “Lieutenant Commander Vanto suggested an idea I believe he called ‘strip sabacc’,” Thrawn continued, the corner of his lips turning upward as he noticed the increased flush in Faro’s cheeks, “but I thought that rather inappropriate for a first meeting. So, I merely reversed his original idea.”





	Reverse Strip

**Author's Note:**

> [puts on three additional shirts] hey hot stuff..... ;)

Whenever he and Thrawn received a new assignment, there was always a period of adjustment – meeting the new officers, finding out they worked, and whether or not they would be openly hostile or just keep it to themselves. He hoped that, with Thrawn now commanding a Star Destroyer, not to mention his own promotion to Lieutenant Commander, the latter would be much more common. 

Still, he’d have his reservations until he had actually met Thrawn’s new First Officer. The two of them were seated in Thrawn’s quarters on either end of the small round table near the center of the room. Eli was busy shuffling the sabacc deck he’d managed to smuggle on board (was it really smuggling when your commanding officer was aware of it?) and running strategy in his head. He was determined to beat Thrawn at this less-than-savory pastime, and figured he had a good chance at fooling the Chiss just this once. Thrawn was studying something on his datapad, but his facial expression didn’t betray his thoughts. 

Eli’s musings were interrupted by the sound of the door comm pinging. 

“Commodore Thrawn,” a crisp female voice came over the comm, “This is First Officer Karyn Faro, requesting entry to your quarters, sir.”

Eli felt himself smirk at her propriety, but reminded himself that it was only to be expected of a respected starship commander addressing a commanding officer – even if he and Thrawn had done away with such formalities a long time ago. 

“You may enter, Commander,” Thrawn replied, keying the door to open from where he sat. He placed his datapad gingerly into his tunic pocket as he rose to greet her. Eli left the shuffled deck on the table and left his chair, the three of them exchanging the normal pleasantries set down by Imperial regulation. 

“I appreciate your acceptance of this invitation,” Thrawn began, gesturing for Faro to take a seat between himself and Eli as the two of them returned to their chairs. “Lieutenant Commander Vanto and I thought it would be… interesting for the three of us to become better acquainted before our first assignment.”

“Agreed,” Faro said with a nod and a straight face, though one of her dark eyebrows rose when Eli pushed the sabacc deck into the center of the table. She refrained from asking any questions and waited for Thrawn’s continued explanation.

“Now, I assure you that we would not break regulation by doing something as insidious as gambling,” Thrawn continued coolly, “but Lieutenant Commander Vanto and I came up with some other outcomes. I believe this card game will ease our worries about working together.” 

“Very good, sir,” Faro replied, still unsure of what was going to happen as Eli began dealing the cards. The strain was barely visible on her face, but Thrawn could see she was flushing slightly with apprehension. 

“Nothing untoward will occur, Commander,” Thrawn assured her. 

“Commodore Thrawn made sure of that,” Eli said with a smirk, setting the remaining cards down on the table and picking up his own. For the first time, Faro noticed his Wild Space drawl when he said the Commodore’s name. 

“Yes,” Thrawn continued, throwing Vanto a look that Faro couldn’t readily identify – those glowing red eyes were difficult to read. 

“Lieutenant Commander Vanto suggested an idea I believe he called ‘strip sabacc’,” Thrawn continued, the corner of his lips turning upward as he noticed the increased flush in Faro’s cheeks, “but I thought that rather inappropriate for a first meeting.”

Faro decided she would rather not think about what would be appropriate for the three of them in later meetings and pushed the thought aside. 

“So, I merely reversed his original idea,” Thrawn said with satisfaction. Vanto looked decidedly less impressed. 

“Lieutenant Commander Vanto, please bring my knitting to the table.”

“Yes, sir.” Eli disappeared for a moment and returned with a rack of pullover sweaters, hats, scarves, and socks that Thrawn had apparently knitted himself. Faro thought she could see where this was going, but was more intrigued by the fact that Commodore Thrawn knitted in his spare time. 

“I’m assuming you know how to play sabacc?” Eli asked her, interrupting her thoughts about the Commodore sitting in his command chair with knitting needles and making socks. 

“Yes, of course,” she responded curtly, picking up her own cards and glancing at them before placing them face down on the table.

“When you lose a hand, you have to put on some of the Commodore’s knitting,” Eli explained with a confident smirk. “Whoever can’t take it is the loser.”

“Understood,” Faro acknowledged, and the three of them delved into the absolute strangest game of sabacc she had ever played. 

Thrawn was clearly the most skilled player out of the three of them, winning every hand so far. She could easily read Eli’s frustrated expression, but between the two of them, they took turns losing in the first several rounds. About a half hour into the game, Karyn was wearing two sweaters and a sock, and Eli had three sweaters and two hats on. 

Then, Thrawn’s strategy seemed to switch. Karyn won almost every hand, with Thrawn beating Eli by a narrow margin. Soon after, Eli was piled high in innumerable sweaters, several hats, two pairs of socks, and a couple scarves. Karyn hadn’t added anything to her meager two sweaters, and Thrawn hadn’t put on anything at all over his black uniform. 

“You’re doing this on purpose,” Eli spat from behind his scarves, shooting an accusing glance at Thrawn. Faro couldn’t help but smile, trying to hide it behind the cards she was holding. 

“I am merely reading the flow of the game,” Thrawn replied, level-headed as always. “If it is uncomfortable for you, you can always accept defeat.”

“Not a chance,” Eli said, his negative head shake barely visible beneath the layers of knitting. His drawl was more pronounced now, and she could see the beads of sweat dampening the ruddy hair that stuck out beneath the hats he was wearing. 

“If you insist,” Thrawn said, giving Faro and knowing glance. She knew he must have had something up his sleeve, but Vanto wouldn’t give up either. What were they both planning? 

They went around the table once more before Vanto triumphantly threw his cards down.

“Pure sabacc!” He nearly screamed, his drawl so pronounced that Faro almost couldn’t understand what he was saying behind the scarves. “You can’t beat this, Thrawn! I finally - ”

“Idiot’s Array,” Thrawn said plainly, spreading his three cards on the table. He smiled and handed one more sweater to Eli, who adamantly refused to put it on, a string of what was presumably Wild Space expletives that Karyn couldn’t understand escaping his mouth. Thrawn said nothing and merely smiled at him, as if this was a regular occurrence. 

Eli slowed suddenly, continuing to rant quietly as he sank down to the table, sweat dripping onto the cool surface from the only exposed part of his face, his shoulders heaving with increased effort. Thrawn and Faro looked at each other with concern, and the Commodore approached Eli as his head finally hit the table. 

“Thrawn!” She heard Eli whine, realizing that he had been addressing the Commodore without his rank. 

“Thrawn, get me out of here,” Eli continued meekly, his hand reaching out for Thrawn’s. To Faro’s surprise, Thrawn took it and clasped it tightly in his own. 

“I don’t feel so good…”

With that, Karyn assumed Eli had fallen unconscious, as Thrawn eyed him with surprise and began pulling the knitting off his body. 

“Um, sir, what should I - ” 

“It’s alright, Commander Faro,” Thrawn said abruptly, cutting her off. He struggled to pull the sweaters off the lieutenant commander’s body, and instead produced a large knife from the inside of his boot and began to cut the knitting free. Faro was startled that he would even carry such a thing, but was even more startled by his intense need to protect the stubborn Vanto.

When he was done, Thrawn peeled the layers of knitting off Eli’s torso, along with his uniform tunic, which was stuck to his skin with sweat.  Throwing the garments aside, he scooped the shirtless and sweaty Eli into his arms and tried to resuscitate him. Faro sat glued to her chair, astounded by what was happening in front of her. So much for not breaking regulation… 

“Eli,” Thrawn said softly, his face far too close to the human’s, at least in Faro’s mind. There were certainly… close. She tried to rationalize the action in any way she could, but then Thrawn leaned down and whispered something right into Vanto’s ear, and she threw all excuses out the window. 

This was going to be a much more interesting post from now on. 

Thrawn’s attempts to bring Eli back to consciousness eventually worked, and the human smiled, larger and more genuine than she had seen, as he registered Thrawn’s glowing eyes above him. Faro figured he had probably forgotten she was still there, as he hadn’t shown the slightest bit of affection for the Commodore while she was in the room. In fact, it almost seemed like Eli put on airs to make it appear that he wasn’t fond of the alien. 

She smiled knowingly as she watched Thrawn carry Eli to his bed and tuck him in. They exchanged a few more words that she couldn’t hear before Thrawn turned his attention back to her. At least, Lieutenant Commander Vanto could rest and – wait…

“These are… your quarters?” She asked with a raised eyebrow, her eyes darting between Thrawn and the half-naked Eli lying in Thrawn’s bed. 

“Yes,” Thrawn answered simply, apparently not understanding what she was getting at, as if everything that was going on was completely acceptable. “Lieutenant Commander Vanto and I used to share quarters some time ago, at - ”

“Sorry, sir,” she said suddenly, rising from her chair and removing the two sweaters she was still wearing, folding them quickly and leaving them on the abandoned sabacc table. “I believe I’ve overstayed my welcome here, and frankly, I don’t think I should know any more about… this.” She gestured vaguely between Thrawn and Eli before turning to the door. 

“Very good, Commander,” Thrawn replied, nodding his head slowly. “And perhaps we should keep this… incident between us.”  

“Yes, sir,” she said, quickly dipping her head in farewell and exiting Thrawn’s quarters, heaving out a sigh as the door slid closed behind her.

And she thought the Clone Wars were bad…


End file.
